


no new world

by queenbaskerville



Series: sparks (filled with hope) [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dabi is Todoroki Touya, Gen, Good Sibling Todoroki Fuyumi, Order of the White Lotus, Protective Todoroki Fuyumi, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting, Todoroki Shouto Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22448089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbaskerville/pseuds/queenbaskerville
Summary: Fire Lord Enji sends Shouto on a fool’s errand to try to teach him a lesson.(a.k.a., everyone needs an Uncle Iroh in their life, and Fuyumi decides that she’ll just have to step up to the plate)
Relationships: Todoroki Fuyumi & Todoroki Shouto
Series: sparks (filled with hope) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550287
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	no new world

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You Are Light/Leaves/Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13644858) by [ijustwanttodestroy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ijustwanttodestroy/pseuds/ijustwanttodestroy). 



> hi my brain is full of worms, metaphorically, so this idea took way too long to spark up. here it is though 
> 
> title from [”blueberry frost” by the mountain goats](%E2%80%9C) if only because I couldn’t think of a more relevant mountain goats song on the fly
> 
> the todoroki shouto I write in this series has powers inspired by the fic I link in the “inspired by” section above (it’s amazing, go read) but a lot of his backstory and actions are gonna be different so I’m not gonna link the fic again in the rest of the series

The day before Shouto leaves the Fire Nation, Fuyumi presses a pai sho tile into his palm.

“If we’re separated, out there, and you need someone,” she says, “this is for that moment.”

Shouto looks at the tile with his one good eye. White lotus.

“What does this mean?” he says, having never been one for his sister’s board games. But, wait—more importantly— “If we’re separated out there?”

“It could happen,” she says.

“Fuyumi,” Shouto says, “we’re being separated right now.”

“What’re you talking about?” she says. “I’m coming with you.”

Shouto can only stare at his bookish sister, who’s always in the background, who’s always with the scholars or the messengers or the healers or Agni-knows who else, unobtrusive and ever-learning, whose training has consisted only of the basic self defense afforded to every palace noble, who isn’t a nonbender but might as well be (at least, in their father’s eyes). What does she expect to get out of this? Research material? Is she interested in the Avatar at all? Spirit lore?

Shouto tries to recall his sister ever expressing interest in spirits, and is a little troubled to realize he doesn’t recall his sister ever expressing interest in much of  anything at all.

So he doesn’t understand.

“I was commanded to go,” Shouto says.  _As punishment for disappointing the Fire Lord_ ,  he doesn’t say.  _Because I’ve quietly defied him one too many times. Because the Fire Lord said the sages detect trouble at our sacred volcano, which they say could mean the Avatar’s return in the coming years, despite the fact that it’s not even the Avatar’s signal, whatever that means. Because he thinks this banishment-in-all-but-name will teach me to be grateful to him. Because he thinks I’ll give up in a year and come back and submit to him._

Shouto truly doesn’t know what he’ll do. All he knows is that he’s about to turn thirteen and he’s been commanded to hunt down the Avatar. As if the last Avatar didn’t die a hundred years ago with the last airbenders. As if this isn’t some sort of training lesson, another unreasonably high expectation, with unclear (actual) goals, that Shouto will have to meet. That Shouto  _will_ meet, because what choice does he have?

“Just me,” Shouto says.

“I’m coming with you,” Fuyumi says again. It doesn’t make more sense than when she said it the first time.

But she wins, somehow. It’s the same as when Shouto acquiesces to her requests to heal him, when he closes his eyes and feels her cool hands on whatever fresh burn or bruise is stuck to him then. Usually bruises, but, yes, burns, too—Shouto is proficient with his fire, more than proficient, but he’s not even thirteen yet, so of course his father crushes him whenever he insists on a private, one-on-one training session. And Touya isn’t as talented as their father, but his fire burns just a few degrees hotter, and he cares much less whether Shouto lives or dies. Shouto is smart enough to know that his father sees him as a blessing—a boy who, despite not being the Avatar, can bend more than one element. Fire and water. The weapon meant to bring the world to its knees. Touya doesn’t have the same interest. Touya is Crown Prince, and their father sees more value in Shouto than in Touya. Everyone can see that. Touya hates it. Never mind the fact that Shouto would prefer it if their father treated Shouto like Fuyumi, and didn’t notice Shouto at all.

Shouto doesn’t know if Fuyumi takes that night to have the servants pack everything she needs and load it onto the ship, or if she’s done it before, had been planning this already. He doesn’t ask—he’s not sure what the answer would be; he’s not sure what he wants the answer to be. If he wants any particular response at all.

In the morning, just before dawn, as Shouto has reached the docks, Touya comes to see Shouto off. To gloat, to bare his teeth in a grin at the idea of his abomination brother forced out of the Fire Nation as a time-out.

“All the training you’ll miss,” Touya says. He examines his fingernails. “I really do wonder if you’ll ever win against me, if you keep making mistakes that lead you to things like this.”

“I do win against you,” Shouto says.

“You occasionally best me in training matches,” Touya says. “If you think that’s even close to winning, you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.”

“Is winning really all you care about?” Fuyumi asks, which is when Shouto realizes she’s there at all.

She approaches with a small bag over her shoulder, her usual silks nowhere to be seen, decked in red travel linens and leathers, her footsteps unfamiliar to her brothers because of her shoes—the curved-steel-toed leather boots of any foot soldier.

Touya scowls, but it lacks the disgust that he keeps on display for Shouto. With Fuyumi, he looks like something else. Shouto isn’t sure what to call it.

“You’re playing a losing game,” Touya says. “Whatever this is. With the freak. It’s not going to pan out.”

“Again,” Fuyumi says, “I’m hearing a lot of emphasis on winning, which I don’t think I really care about.”

Fuyumi stands slightly behind Shouto, on his bad side. He prickles at it, at first, her deliberate placement where he can’t see her—where he’s the most vulnerable, in theory, as has been painfully drilled into him many times before—but she’s Fuyumi, and he trusts her. So Shouto relaxes.

“You’re always harping on about winning,” Touya says, “you and your Agni-cursed pai sho.”

“As if you don’t enjoy every game we play,” Fuyumi says, her tone far more gentle and teasing than Touya’s aggressive one.

Shouto had not realized they played pai sho together. It’s not something he can picture, Touya sitting peacefully in front of a pai sho board. For Father, maybe, if that was something Father would ever ask, Touya would do it. But Fuyumi? Whom Touya ignores on his best days and snipes at on all the rest?

Touya scowls again.

“You’re making a mistake,” he says. It’s not a warning, but a threat. Shouto can’t help but brace himself for some sort of ultimatum, or an order passed along from their father, or a call for the guards.

“I’ll miss you, too,” Fuyumi says.

Shouto tenses further at that, but Touya does nothing but grit his teeth and turn on his heel, sparks brightening his fingertips. He strides away from them, not looking back once. Not that Shouto had expected him to, really, but—

“The ship is waiting,” Fuyumi says.

When Shouto turns to fully face her, she smiles at him, full of something akin to determination on her face. What for, Shouto doesn’t know.

So—the day Shouto leaves, Fuyumi comes with him.

He expects, through some discovery or error, or by order of the Fire Lord, they’ll be home again within a month or two.

He is wrong.

Shouto is halfway between his fourteenth and fifteenth birthdays when a light flares into the sky at the North Pole.

“The Avatar,” Shouto breathes.

Fuyumi’s face is cloud-pale. Shouto turns away from her and takes a deep, steadying breath. He knows what he has to do. 

**Author's Note:**

> all y’all nerds need more fuyumi content in ur lives. more lesbian fuyumi content specifically but I couldn’t figure out how to work that in here so this will have to do for now


End file.
